News analysis: Is the EU neglecting the political crisis in Albania?

Story Highlights

• There is little doubt that the EU uses the opening of negotiations as leverage to encourage the undertaking of reforms in Albania, including the justice reform. But it seems very naïve to think that by simply starting the vetting process, one step in the justice reform implementation – which is expected to take five to ten years to be fully implemented – can convince all European Council members to open negotiations with Albania. That is even more the case when the EU itself has made it clear that enlargement is no longer a priority in the short to medium terms thanks to numerous crisis the union faces.